The Dominion SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1928. THE PEOPLE’S UNIVERSITY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 126, 25 February 1928, Page 8

The Dominion SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1928. THE PEOPLE’S UNIVERSITY

The recent conference at Christchurch of municipal and private librarians invites attention to the present condition and progress of what has been described as “the people's university.” The public library—with which, logically, may be associated the private circulating library—should play an important part in the culture of the communitv. The question is, does it? This question can only be answered by examining the present function of our public and private libraries. Wherever there has been a demand for a public library—whether municipally or privately owned—th er e has been an attempt to meet it. The average reader of books finds that his demand for literature is beyond the resources of his pocket. Hence, he looks for some kind of local organisation which will supply him, at a trifling cost, with the literature which he cannot afford to possess, but which he desires to read. The problem of the public library is to meet the demand of a vast variety of readers. Some want to have at their disposal books of scientific lore. Others desire nothing more than week-end fiction. This latter group insists upon a constantly changing bill of fare. The patrons of the public libraries may be divided into two groups—those who read for intellectual profit and those who desire merely entertainment.

The solution of these very difficult community problems resolves itself into a question of librarianship. Most of our public libraries are controlled by the municipalities. That this is not the most perfect system cannot be questioned. Municipal government is concerned, at this stage of our national development, with the bread-and-butter question of transport, drainage, and community necessities. It has not yet reached the stage of devoting a definite part of its time and energies to community culture. Whatever part of its time and energies is devoted to the question of the people’s demand for reading can only be of a more or less perfunctory character.

What is required, therefore, is some kind of inspiration which will attract the attention of our local bodies to the fact that in the public library the municipality has at hand a valuable medium for the inculcation of ideals in citizenship. Reading, whether it be of a serious kind or merely recreative, is all to the good, for from wisely selected literature, whether serious or fictional, ideas are implanted, and morals drawn, which make for the raising of the civic standard. .

The post of public librarian is, therefore, of a highly responsible kind. He is not merely an expert in the cataloguing of the various branches of literature represented on the shelves of the library. He is also, or should be, an inspiration and a director of the public taste in reading, and a purveyor of learning to those who are studiously inclined. It is no small responsibility, or mere functional office. Much of the time of the recent librarians’ conference in Christchurch was devoted to such questions as the purloining or defacement of library files. That is surely a detail in librarianship, involving questions of supervision rather than of the large issue of public guidance. The wise selection of reading matter lies within the capacity of the literary cognoscenti. These know what they_want, and where to look for their intellectual information and refreshment. But for the great unlearned in literature, of the large mass of the public which likes a book for recreation or entertainment, or even knowledge, there is need for some kind of organised guidance. Librarianship is, therefore, not a mere matter of looking after books, or even of buying books. It should be a task of bringing the public into contact with the best in serious or fiction literature. What is wanted is guidance. To tell the man in the street, or the woman at home, that a certain book is worth reading, is at once to place such a book in circulation. Here are required qualities of citizenship and discernment of no mean order. It has been said that the character of a man may be told by the books on his shelves. May not the same be said of a community, and its libraries?